1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to personal flotation devices and, more particularly, is concerned with a life preserver child bed flotation assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Boating and other types of water activities are today increasingly enjoyed by family groups, whose members often include infants and young children. A variety of flotation accessories have been designed for use by children and adults in such settings. Safety considerations obviously dictate a need for life-saving flotation accessories appropriate for use with an infant or youg child should an emergency situation arise.
Some flotation accessories have been designed particularly for recreational use while other designs pertain specifically to life-saving purposes. Some representative examples of this range of accessories are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,996,576 to Hegewaldt, 3,161,897 to Hill, 3,740,095 to Nail, and 4,725,253 to Politte.
The flotation accessories disclosed by Hegewaldt, Hill and Nail each pertain particularly to recreational usage. The Hegewaldt and Nail accessories are designed for use by adults and older children. The Hill accessory is designed for use by a young child in water play activities and for nurturing initial swimming skills.
The accessory disclosed by Politte is focused on the life preserving function. The Politte accessory exhibits such life-saving features as body straps, rescue seeking devices and attention attracting apparatus. However, such features obviously entail substantial complexity in design and construction of the Politte accessory, thereby making manufacture fairly expensive. Additionally, reliance on the seat structure alone to provide sufficient flotation capability for the accessory in a body of water is rather problematical, given the often turbulent water conditions arising in emergency situations. Further, the Politte accessory is not particularly functional as a sleeping unit for a young child, thereby limiting its usage to strictly emergency situations.
Consequently, a need still exists for a life-preserver flotation accessory designed particularly for use with infants and young children.